PET for hot-fill

A grade for hot-fill bottles: juices, nectars, tea and isotonic drinks. These products are filled hot to ensure microbiological stability, and the bottle has to withstand contact with the hot product without deforming.

What matters in hot-fill

Standard bottle-grade PET shrinks when heated. For hot-fill, the bottle is blown with heat-setting in a heated mould: the wall gains higher crystallinity and holds its shape better. The grade therefore needs:

• a higher viscosity than the water grade, for wall strength during heat-setting;
• predictable crystallisation behaviour, so the bottle keeps its clarity and geometry;
• lot-to-lot consistency, since the heat-set process is sensitive to variations in resin properties.

As the product cools in the closed bottle, a vacuum forms, so the bottle design (vacuum panels, reinforced base) and blowing parameters are selected together with the grade.

Supply and documents

Big bags or container shipments; packing and the minimum lot by agreement. Each lot comes with a quality certificate and a certificate of analysis (CoA); copies of the FDA and EU food-contact certificates are available on request.

Send a request describing your product, bottle size and equipment, and we will send the TDS and a sample.